Spurs Practice Interviews 1/29: Pop and Parker (Pop says Duncan is questionable)

[ace3g]

http://www.nba.com/spurs/video/2013/01/29/130129popmov-2368100

http://www.nba.com/spurs/video/2013/01/29/130129parkermov-2368098

[Juggity]

Not such good news on Tim.

Per the Pop interview: Tim is not where he needs to be health wise and is still questionable for Wednesday's game.

[Spurs_Be_Beastin']

not good news at all tbh...
hopefully it is in fact just " soreness "
but i seen him back there having a 3 point contest with jack so it must not bother him too too bad lol
we dont really need him vs bobcats and the wiz anyway so let him rest and get back to 100 percent.
get well soon tim.

[tp2021]

Not such good news on Tim.

Per the Pop interview: Tim is not where he needs to be health wise and is still questionable for Wednesday's game.

What he said is that Tim isn't where they (the coaching staff I assume) want him to be.
Maybe they had always planned to assess Tim's overall health at this soft spot in the schedule, and don't want to let him play until he's back on a full tank.
Maybe its Pop's way of resting Tim that doesn't get the Spurs sued or hit with substantial forthcoming sanctions.

[Bruno]

For Pop, it would be awfully tempting to shut down Duncan for 2 more games (vs. Bobcats and vs. Wizards) and gives him an additional week of rest. It will allow Duncan to have two full weeks of rest and has other edges like showcasing Blair and giving some minutes to Baynes. If Spurs are serious they should be able to beat these two teams even if Wizards have been better lately. And with Spurs record, losing one of these games wouldn't be a big deal.

If I were Pop, I would say that Tim isn't at 100% and wait the rodeo road trip to put him back on the court.

[jermaine]

Not such good news on Tim.

Per the Pop interview: Tim is not where he needs to be health wise and is still questionable for Wednesday's game.
If you've watchee any games, you'll know there's nuttin wrong with Tim. He's just resting him.

[letmk]

I would rest Tim for the next two games. Doing this would give Tim more than 2 weeks' rest.

[y2kbug]

Timmy in the background jacking up 3s :lol

[Spurs 4 The Win]

This is just a ploy to keep him from having to play in the all star game. Pop just doesnt want to get another fine. Timmy wont see the court till the rodeo road trip... Book It

[tp2021]

Maybe they are holding Tim out until Blair gets traded...

They need the depth at the bigman spots with Tim out, but once he returns to the lineup, the Spurs have 6 bigs plus Kawhi/Jack who do a great job at smallball 4. Everyone knows Blair is gone after the season, and gets removed from the rotation come playoff time (as hopefully Bonner will be). They wouldn't have bought out Baynes to sign him this season for added toughness to the squad if they didn't plan on using him.

Perhaps Tim gets a huge extended break in the middle of the season to prepare for the late season surge, which also coincides with the search of a DJB suitor. Super CIA Pop at work.

[Russ]

Good to see Pop back. He looks pretty drained; you can tell he's been battling an illness.

Not great news regarding Duncan ... but not horrible. Hopefully it doesn't stiffen up in the morning and it continues to be viewed as a minor ailment.

But, yeah, like Bruno said, it's tempting to shut him down until the RRT. That'd be a great amount of rest. Though, Duncan would still have to go to Houston and do all the All-Star interviews and all the promo stuff so it's not like he could skip the whole All-Star weekend. Factoring in that he has to go to Houston either way, it might have Pop and Duncan lessen the degree of that consideration. Besides, I'm sure a small part (okay, a very small part) of Duncan would enjoy playing in the All-Star Game with TP and Pop as some sort of FU to the coaches who didn't vote for him last season ... and just cuz those three have never been together in that game.

I gotta believe if they were really worried about Tim, he wouldn't be scrimmaging with the team. It looks mostly like a convenient time to rest him.

I'd be shocked if TD doesn't play and play well in the All Star Game.

[Uriel]

For Pop, it would be awfully tempting to shut down Duncan for 2 more games (vs. Bobcats and vs. Wizards) and gives him an additional week of rest. It will allow Duncan to have two full weeks of rest and has other edges like showcasing Blair and giving some minutes to Baynes. If Spurs are serious they should be able to beat these two teams even if Wizards have been better lately. And with Spurs record, losing one of these games wouldn't be a big deal.

If I were Pop, I would say that Tim isn't at 100% and wait the rodeo road trip to put him back on the court.
I couldn't agree more. Tim Duncan's renaissance has been a huge part of our strong play this season, and I would be completely open to shutting him down as long as possible just to get him back to that level of play. It would be an unmitigated disaster if Duncan were to return too early and regress in his level of play.

[jmard5]

Agreed with the majority of the posts that Pop will be just allowing Duncan more rest time.

[MaineSpursFan]

Timmy was hitting those 3s at a good clip, when are we going to see more plays run for timmy on the 3 point line! =D

[FromWayDowntown]

The point about Pop going further into CIA mode with something like this after Restgate, particularly if the plan is just to buy Tim some rest time, is well-taken.

[Bruno]

Aside of the injury update on Duncan, Pop said nice things about Baynes. It sounds more like Pop will give him a shot this season than he is just a player for next year. On the paper, a Baynes/Diaw frontcourt should work fine.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

You guys don't think this knee issue is something that may even continue to bother him after the all star break? I'm just surprised it's been bugging him for this long, hopefully it's something that does go away sooner than later.

[timvp]

The best sign, IMO, is that we haven't heard about any MRIs or anything like that. If it was potentially serious, one would imagine Duncan would get an MRI and wouldn't be casually lofting threes. But, I guess we'll see how this plays out.

Oh, and I liked that Pop said that TP is the best PG in the league. In that past, he has put the CP3 caveat ... but not this time :smokin

[TDMVPDPOY]

TOSB should just retire....could use that expiring contract to rebuild around Bayne

[playblair]

Aside of the injury update on Duncan, Pop said nice things about Baynes. It sounds more like Pop will give him a shot this season than he is just a player for next year. On the paper, a Baynes/Diaw frontcourt should work fine.

blair/baynes >>>>>>>>>>>>>baynes/diaw ............. blair baynes = bruisers dominating 2nd units .........

[Juggity]

blair/baynes >>>>>>>>>>>>>baynes/diaw ............. blair baynes = bruisers dominating 2nd units .........

Baynes/McDyess > Blair/Baynes

[TDMVPDPOY]

Baynes/McDyess > Blair/Baynes

u guys gettin over excited about a scrub who has yet to show his euro game translate to the nba...

his only played 1 min, and most of you clowns think his the adonis thats going to deliver that 5th ring....

[TD 21]

Aside of the injury update on Duncan, Pop said nice things about Baynes. It sounds more like Pop will give him a shot this season than he is just a player for next year. On the paper, a Baynes/Diaw frontcourt should work fine.

I caught this too. He didn't say the typical things he says when he has no intention of a new player being in the rotation in their first season. If this is indeed the case though, then Blair is 100% gone, otherwise I don't see Baynes even being active, let alone on the fringe of the rotation. So basically, don't expect to see much of him until after the deadline.

Disagree that losing one of these two games wouldn't be a big deal. Getting the 1 seed is important and if they're to maintain it, then they have to win games like these. So as long as Duncan's knee feels fine tomorrow, he should play. Given the competition, it's a perfect opportunity to ease him back in before the RRT anyway. I'd prefer they do that than unnecessarily sit him for too long and have him lose game shape and increase the risk of him losing his rhythm.

[Spur|n|Austin]

Agreed with the majority of the posts that Pop will be just allowing Duncan more rest time.

Agreed. For one I'm not overly concerned with Tim's health at all. As someone said, this is just a perfect time to rest him up. He's fine.

[benefactor]

The point about Pop going further into CIA mode with something like this after Restgate, particularly if the plan is just to buy Tim some rest time, is well-taken.

The best sign, IMO, is that we haven't heard about any MRIs or anything like that. If it was potentially serious, one would imagine Duncan would get an MRI and wouldn't be casually lofting threes.
:tu

There just has been enough of the usual injury news surrounding this for me to believe that it's anything serious. The Spurs played a lot of games early in the season and came out of it in great shape. If you combine that with the fact that they have a very favorable schedule down the stretch from a home/road standpoint, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that Pop is simply taking advantage of the favorable position that his team is currently in and using it to give Duncan some time off.

[Seventyniner]

I caught this too. He didn't say the typical things he says when he has no intention of a new player being in the rotation in their first season. If this is indeed the case though, then Blair is 100% gone, otherwise I don't see Baynes even being active, let alone on the fringe of the rotation. So basically, don't expect to see much of him until after the deadline.

Disagree that losing one of these two games wouldn't be a big deal. Getting the 1 seed is important and if they're to maintain it, then they have to win games like these. So as long as Duncan's knee feels fine tomorrow, he should play. Given the competition, it's a perfect opportunity to ease him back in before the RRT anyway. I'd prefer they do that than unnecessarily sit him for too long and have him lose game shape and increase the risk of him losing his rhythm.

But the next two games are home games against the Bobcats and Wizards with 2+ days of rest for each. These are the opposite of the scheduled loss at Miami earlier this season. This is a perfect time to sit Duncan and give Baynes 8-10 minutes to see what he can do.

[Rito3d30]

Is that Timmy shooting in the background:wow

[stéphane]

u guys gettin over excited about a scrub who has yet to show his euro game translate to the nba...

his only played 1 min, and most of you clowns think his the adonis thats going to deliver that 5th ring....

Exact same feeling we have after reading one of your posts, your bark's impressive but ya always fail to deliver.

[Obstructed_View]

For Pop, it would be awfully tempting to shut down Duncan for 2 more games (vs. Bobcats and vs. Wizards) and gives him an additional week of rest. It will allow Duncan to have two full weeks of rest and has other edges like showcasing Blair and giving some minutes to Baynes. If Spurs are serious they should be able to beat these two teams even if Wizards have been better lately. And with Spurs record, losing one of these games wouldn't be a big deal.

If I were Pop, I would say that Tim isn't at 100% and wait the rodeo road trip to put him back on the court.

Agreed 100%.

[TD 21]

But the next two games are home games against the Bobcats and Wizards with 2+ days of rest for each. These are the opposite of the scheduled loss at Miami earlier this season. This is a perfect time to sit Duncan and give Baynes 8-10 minutes to see what he can do.

I realize that, but, again I'll say, so long as he's fine (and if he weren't, I don't think he'd be going through practice and shoot around and running on the treadmill), he should be playing at this point. Are we to believe that he's suddenly going to be more spry in the middle of the playoffs because he had 14 or whatever days off instead of 8 in late January? At this point, game shape/rhythm should take precedence.

[Paranoid Pop]

I realize that, but, again I'll say, so long as he's fine (and if he weren't, I don't think he'd be going through practice and shoot around and running on the treadmill), he should be playing at this point. Are we to believe that he's suddenly going to be more spry in the middle of the playoffs because he had 14 or whatever days off instead of 8 in late January? At this point, game shape/rhythm should take precedence.

So you think his knee is 100%?

Or even crazier : never was less than that and he limped on purpose?

It's like the theory that Blair being traded is the reason he's not playing instead of the obvious explanation that given by the team, sounds like wishful thinking.

[TD 21]

So you think his knee is 100%?

Or even crazier : never was less than that and he limped on purpose?

It's like the theory that Blair being traded is the reason he's not playing instead of the obvious explanation that given by the team, sounds like wishful thinking.

I think it is now, sure. Why else would he have went through practice (and been shooting threes post practice) and shoot around and ran on the treadmill?

No, I do think it was less than that for a few days after it happened last week and I don't buy that he limped on purpose. In fact, he probably wanted to return either last game or for sure this one, but they've probably told him to take another one or two off as a means of essentially giving him a mini off season mid season.

[Obstructed_View]

Are we to believe that he's suddenly going to be more spry in the middle of the playoffs because he had 14 or whatever days off instead of 8 in late January?

I don't think there's an emphatic enough way to say "yes".

Problems he's had in the last few years are related to his knees, so Pop played him fewer minutes per game to try to keep him healthy. Once the playoffs rolled around, Timmy would destroy teams in the first half and then run out of gas in the second. Shortened rotations and stronger opponents mean your superstars have to play more minutes in the playoffs. It's a reality that Pop's likely figured out, and is working to adjust. This decision was probably made by everyone after the Substantial Sanctions© were handed down.

I'd MUCH rather he have a month off in the middle of the season, then get his wind back over the last part of the season so that he's ready to destroy people for 38 minutes a night if necessary.

[TD 21]

I don't think there's an emphatic enough way to say "yes".

Problems he's had in the last few years are related to his knees, so Pop played him fewer minutes per game to try to keep him healthy. Once the playoffs rolled around, Timmy would destroy teams in the first half and then run out of gas in the second. Shortened rotations and stronger opponents mean your superstars have to play more minutes in the playoffs. It's a reality that Pop's likely figured out, and is working to adjust. This decision was probably made by everyone after the Substantial Sanctions© were handed down.

I'd MUCH rather he have a month off in the middle of the season, then get his wind back over the last part of the season so that he's ready to destroy people for 38 minutes a night if necessary.

Have you learned nothing from the past few seasons? They held him to roughly 28 mpg in both and last year they even were able to get the entire team significant rest between rounds, yet it didn't matter come the WCF. It didn't suddenly mean he, nor Parker and Ginobili, could play significantly more minutes than they're used to without it affecting their play. Ginobili played upper 30's minutes one game and two days later, with the season on the line, he looked gassed because he was so unaccustomed to playing that much.

I'm not saying Pop should run them into the ground in the regular season. What I'm saying is, at a certain point, it makes no difference. Like the difference between him playing 28 mpg the past two years or 30 mpg this year or the difference between 8 and 14 days off, in late January. That's not going to matter come the playoffs.

[Obstructed_View]

Have you learned nothing from the past few seasons? They held him to roughly 28 mpg in both and last year they even were able to get the entire team significant rest between rounds, yet it didn't matter come the WCF. It didn't suddenly mean he, nor Parker and Ginobili, could play significantly more minutes than they're used to without it affecting their play. Ginobili played upper 30's minutes one game and two days later, with the season on the line, he looked gassed because he was so unaccustomed to playing that much.

I'm not saying Pop should run them into the ground in the regular season. What I'm saying is, at a certain point, it makes no difference. Like the difference between him playing 28 mpg the past two years or 30 mpg this year or the difference between 8 and 14 days off, in late January. That's not going to matter come the playoffs.

I somehow think we're saying exactly the same thing, but you don't realize it because you assumed the opposite of my meaning while skimming my post.

Holding a guy to fewer minutes PER GAME means he's not accustomed to playing heavy minutes when it counts, and I agree that it was a completely failed strategy. I say give Duncan the next few weeks off, bring him back, and have the shortened rotation ready to put in heavy minutes by the end of the regular season so that he CAN do it if and when necessary. He's proven that the reduced weight on his knee allows him to play at a much higher level. The Spurs have the best record in the league and can afford to give up some ground while he rests. Then they have three months to get his wind back and get the team rolling.